Forum for National Restoration seeks national healing and restitution for the tragedy of 1966.

By Lawrence Akpan

As Nigeria marks the sombre ritual of Armed Forces Remembrance Day, a broad-based civic and intellectual organization, “Forum for National Restoration” has called for a deliberate, honest, and nationally owned process of reconciliation and restoration as a moral and historical restitution for the unresolved wounds of Nigeria’s January 15, 1966 military coup and its far-reaching consequences.

At an enlightenment and planning summit convened in Abuja by the forum recently, the Movement examined the 1966 coup as a defining rupture in Nigeria’s post-independence journey and one whose violent disruptions, premeditated and ethnically tilted killings set in motion cycles of mistrust, counter-violence, and enduring grievances that continue to shape the nation’s politics and inter-communal relations.

Participants at the event noted that the coup represented a fatal departure from constitutional order barely six years after independence. “While presented by its plotters as a corrective intervention, the coup’s execution marked by the assassination of senior political leaders and military officers, created a perception of ethnic selectivity that fractured national cohesion and delegitimised the state in the eyes of many citizens” the forum observed in a statement.

In his presentation during the enlightenment, Dr. Dominic Nnaemeka,   Okechukwu, an Abuja based medical practitioner and Group Medical Director, observed that the coup’s aftermath deepened divisions rather than resolved governance failures.  Explaining further, he said that the counter-coup of July 1966, the mass killings that followed in different parts of the country, and the descent into the Nigerian Civil War entrenched a legacy of bloodshed, displacement, and trauma.

He stressed that those events, did not merely claim lives; but reconfigured trust, hardened identities, and normalised violence as a pathway to power.

According to him, the long shadow of 1966 has manifested in persistent agitation, feelings of exclusion, and recurring demands for justice, equity, and recognition across regions, noting that the failure to confront the truth of those events, through an inclusive national reckoning has allowed grievances to fester, feeding cycles of suspicion and political brinkmanship.

In his response to audience enquiries during the event, Air Vice Marshal John Chris Ifemeje (rtd) emphasized that the aim of the forum is not to reopen old wounds but to heal them by naming the past (truth-telling) honestly and honoring the dead without bias, and reaffirming a shared national ethic that rejects violence and collective blame.

Proposed pathways forward, according to the communiqué issued at the end of the enlightenment and planning meetings are that, participants unanimously agreed that Nigeria’s lingering divisions rooted in the pain, grievances, and misinformation surrounding the 1966 coup and its aftermath must be deliberately and objectively addressed in the national interest.

To this end, they resolved to establish a National Reconciliation and Restoration Committee, operating as a collective body with specialised subcommittees, to plan and implement a two-stage National Truth and Reconciliation Conference: the first to objectively verify and establish the truth based on verifiable facts, constitutional standards, and international best practices, and the second to foster public forgiveness, reconciliation, and national healing led by elders and leaders from across the country. The process will be guided by strict principles of objectivity, respect for human dignity, religious and ethnic sensitivity, non-partisanship, and selfless service, with the media used solely for public information. Participants rejected military intervention in governance, affirmed respect for judicial processes and lawful redress, and condemned self-help and anarchy.

The communiqué further outlined plans for nationwide peace visits, press briefings, and the publication of research materials, while calling for broad public participation and the active support of government agencies, with the long-term goal of applying this reconciliation model to other divisive national issues.;